Ads come to Battle.Net as Activision monetizes free service

Activision Blizzard knows how to make money, but gamers may not be happy in …

Activision Blizzard has a very easy-to-understand business plan: monetize everything it can, as quickly as it can, across as many platforms as it can. The result is a strong slash-and-burn mentality when it comes to the games industry, and a new deal with Massive Inc. to sell ads in its games shouldn't come as a surprise; in-game advertising isn't a new idea. What's frightening is the announcement that those ads are coming to Battle.Net. Don't worry, it sounds like there are even more plans to turn Battle.net into a cash cow.

The good news is that the ads won't be appearing in-game. "Through this relationship, Massive will serve advertising to a highly engaged audience that visits Blizzard Entertainment's collection of heavily trafficked Web sites and plays using Battle.net, the company’s online game service with millions of active users," the announcement stated. When StarCraft 2 is released, millions of gamers will be using Battle.net to set up games and chat with friends, and all those eyes are worth money. Who wouldn't want to be reminded to upgrade your RAM or order a pizza while you're on Battle.Net?

This move was hinted at back in October, when Diablo III's Jay Wilson was quoted as saying, "We are looking to monetize Battle.Net so that we get to keep making these games and updating features. We kind of have to." That led to much hand-wringing and speculation. Would we see microtransactions? Pay to play? Right now it looks as if the easiest way to make money off Battle.net is to place ads on the service, but this could be the first of many ways for Activision Blizzard to profit from the service.

Blizzard's Rob Pardo spoke about some other future plans that don't sound promising. "With Battle.Net we're definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money… I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at," he stated. "We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren’t core to the game experience, they're really just optional things that some people want." Be sure you really, really like the name you choose when the newly revamped Battle.net launches, in other words.

These new ideas and money-making schemes aren't being shoehorned into the existing Battle.Net, as Activision Blizzard is hard at work creating a revamped version of the service for StarCraft 2 and Diablo III. That means that the team can start from the ground up and decide what services the company would like continue to give away for free, and which it would like to make for-pay.

The amount of eyes that will be on Battle.Net when these two upcoming games are released will be staggering. It's somewhat depressing that instead of a blessing, Activision Blizzard sees that as an opportunity to maximize the earning potential of the service. Blizzard has long been known as one of the good guys in gaming, but it's unclear how long Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will allow them to keep that reputation.